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So my girlfriend/cousin have been together for a while now and are madly in love and planning our future with family support . My family came to us and told us that our great grandparents were also a cousin couple. Well my question is are there any greater risks for us having children as I could not find any info out about this .

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So my girlfriend/cousin have been together for a while now and are madly in love and planning our future with family support . My family came to us and told us that our great grandparents were also a cousin couple. Well my question is are there any greater risks for us having children as I could not find any info out about this .

If your 1st cousin's, the risk is 4% which is very small so a genetic counsellor would be ideal before pregnancy

nessa76

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the risk for first cousins is actually 1.5 to 2.8% greater than unrelated couples. unrelated couples have a 3% risk. so for first cousins, it's an almost doubled risk... (totalling 4.5 to 6.8 %.... close nessa! you've almost got it! ) but still very small.I

had your parents also been first cousins, it would have been a little higher. not much, but a little. however, since it was your great grandparents who were first cousins, that's too far back in the family tree to impact your risk assessment now.

we like to encourage couples (related or not!) to get genetic counseling, because there are many genetic issues that can be passed down from generation to generation. only a small percentage of those can be affected by the parents kinship, by the way.